and untidy place, but he was tired, and
as the gamekeepers would not suspect a neatly-dressed stranger, had
thought of stopping another night. When he had nearly finished his
pipe. Long Pete came up. Foster, who had only seen him in the
moonlight, now noted that he had a rather frank brown face and a
twinkling smile.

"Ye'll be for Hawick?" he remarked.

Foster said he was going there and Pete resumed in a meaning tone:
"It's a grand day for the road and ye could be in Hawick soon after
it's dark."

"Just so," said Foster, who could take a hint. "But is there any
reason I should start this afternoon?"

"Ye should ken. I was across the muir in the morning and found a
polisman frae Yarrow at Watty Bell's. He'd come ower the hills on his
bicycle and was asking if they'd seen a stranger wi' a glove on his
left han'."

Foster made a little abrupt movement that he thought the other noted,
but said carelessly, "The fellow must have had a rough trip."

"A road gangs roon' up the waterside, though I wouldna' say it's very
good. I'm thinking he made an early start and would wait for dinner
with Watty. Then ye might give him twa 'oors to get here."

Foster looked at his watch and pondered. He was beginning to
understand Scottish tact and saw that Pete meant to give him a friendly
warning. It was obvious that the policeman would not have set off
across the hills in the dark of a winter morning unless he had been
ordered to make inquiries. Moreover, since the gamekeepers had
mistaken Foster for Pete, the orders had nothing to do with the
poaching.

"Perhaps I had better pull out," he said. "But the fellow won't have
much trouble in learning which way I've gone."

"I'm no' sure o' that. There's a road o' a sort rins west to Annandale
and Lockerbie."

"But I'm not going west."

"Weel," said Pete, "ye might start that way, and I would meet ye where
a sheep track rins back up the glen--ye'll ken it by the broken dyke
where ye cross the burn. Then I would set ye on the road to Hawick
ower the hill."

"Thanks," said Foster thoughtfully. "I suppose I ought to let the
folks at the inn know I've gone towards Annandale, so they can tell the
policeman?"

Pete's eyes twinkled. "It might be better if they didna' exactly tell
him, but let him find it oot; but I'll see tae that. Polisman Jock is
noo and then rather shairp."

Ten minutes later, Foster left the inn and set off across the moor.
The heath shone r